* Click here to read it. The “blueprint” is incredibly weak. He’s found just $140 million in itemized budgetary “savings.” And most of those savings aren’t even recoverable or part of GRF.

…Adding… A Rauner ally just called to clarify that this is only waste. It’s just the first step, she said. It’s still weak.

On top of that, Rauner also calls for eliminating the state aircraft fleet, he wants an end to “slush funds” like the anti-violence initiative, and he vows not to accept a salary.

He claims unspecified reforms at CMS would save another $500 million. And another $250 million could be saved by verifying Medicaid eligibility.

* Basically, Rauner has given us a few pieces of low-hanging fruit, sprinkled it with some magic fairy dust and added a dash of hot rhetoric.

This isn’t a budget blueprint. It’s rehashed stuff he’s already talked about on the campaign trail. And it absolutely does not prevent the need to keep income tax rates high.

*** UPDATE 1 *** From the Quinnsters…

Quinn for Illinois Statement on Rauner’s Budget Prank Today

Rauner’s Ploy Would Benefit Millionaires and Billionaires That Want to be Governor

CHICAGO - Following is a statement from Quinn for Illinois Communications Director Brooke Anderson in response to the Bruce Rauner budget prank released today:

“What Bruce Rauner released today is a giant prank on the public meant to hide the absence of any real plan to deal with the massive structural challenges facing Illinois.

“Gov. Quinn has cut wasteful spending and made the tough choices to pay the bills while Rauner tried to score political points from the sidelines.

“What Rauner released today is a collection of newspaper clippings and lesser versions of policies Gov. Quinn already has embraced, as the Governor has cut $5.7 billion in spending to date. In fact, as part of his current budget review, Governor Quinn is already evaluating the state’s plane usage.

“Gov. Quinn closed 50 state facilities, reformed Medicaid and enacted reforms that mean Illinois is actually spending less on operations than it did six years ago.

“Rauner’s prank today notably includes a grandstanding salary provision that would mean that only millionaires and billionaires could be Governor.

“Rauner has attempted to sabotage the real savings achieved by Gov. Quinn, whether it be real city and state pension reform, paying our bills and protecting homeowners from property tax increases.

“The question we are left with today after Rauner’s ploy is, ‘Where’s his real budget plan?’”

Bruce Rauner today announced ten key steps needed to reform state government and eliminate wasteful spending as part of a series of policy initiatives he will continue to unveil in the coming weeks.

The proposals will form a Bring Back Blueprint that details the reforms needed to restructure state government so it can be run more effectively and efficiently, create an economic climate that will lead to more and better paying jobs, ensure a fair, pro-growth tax system and find the resources to invest in education.

Click HERE to download the Bring Back Blueprint: Government Reform and Cutting Government Waste.

Today’s reforms follow last week’s announcement by Bruce that the first major initiative he is pushing – legislative term limits – received official word from the state that it had enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.

“Pat Quinn spent five years preserving a broken system. His failure to act has Illinois stuck in a downward spiral that’s resulted in both a record tax hike and yet another phony budget,” Rauner said. “That’s why I’m laying out a series of structural reforms and savings that will transform our state.”

He identifies $60 million spent for correctional officer overtime as “savings” while at the same time saying more people should have been hired to prevent overtime. You aren’t going to save $60 million because you are going to spend a lot of that on new employees. […]

He identifies money at the Court of Claims as “waste” yet Court of Claims payments are for things owed by the state. I guess he’s for stiffing people what they are owed.

He says get rid of the state air fleet but doesn’t provide any analysis of the real savings because you will start to have to spend money on mileage reimbursement for individuals not taking the plane (not just the Governor uses the planes). He also says it only costs $65 to drive between Chicago and Springfield. It costs double that based on the current mileage reimbursement rate.

All of the audit issues he brings up with equipment aren’t savings. I have no idea how he comes to that conclusion.

As for the payments on Medicaid to deceased individuals that money has been recovered. No savings there either. I also have no idea in general how he comes up with $140 million in savings.

See “Update 4″ for a pretty good response. Plus, half of those “savings” are from one agency, CMS, and his plan doesn’t even come close to specifying how he’d save $500 million. C’mon. This is so phoney.

Not. Even. Close. PQ could have done better… One first big mistake of a well run campaign up to now… If there isn’t an announcement in the end.. On this date, I will release my budget plan… He’s got some problems…Soon ain’t an answer now… A date.

Do you know what Rauner’s *specific* curriculum (as opposed to *standards*) recommendation is?

Or are you just assuming the worst, since he doesn’t have a stated position? Not that assuming the worst is necessarily unfair–see this joke of a ‘policy announcement–but just to be clear, whether that’s an assumption or a demonstrable position.

Anyone who really believes at this juncture ,Rauner is up by 10 points should put down that crack pipe. The state of Illinois has way more registered Democrats than Republicans. Plus, Pat Quinn has a secret ace in hole: how’s Rauner going to respond when Barack Obama comes back to town to help Pat Quinn?

Where does everybody else get that magic fairy dust? Mr Rauner has to realize that the budget has to be a workable document, not one made up of smoke, mirrors and sweet sounding sound bites that work well on the campaign trail but not in the real world. Try again sir and this time try come up with workable solutions not false promises that you can’t keep.

A lot of stuff in his “blueprint” are just plain goofy. He identifies $60 million spent for correctional officer overtime as “savings” while at the same time saying more people should have been hired to prevent overtime. You aren’t going to save $60 million because you are going to spend a lot of that on new employees. He wants to go to a defined contribution plan for legislators but last time I checked legislators were still covered under the constitutional pension guarantee. He identifies money at the Court of Claims as “waste” yet Court of Claims payments are for things owed by the state. I guess he’s for stiffing people what they are owed. He says get rid of the state air fleet but doesn’t provide any analysis of the real savings because you will start to have to spend money on mileage reimbursement for individuals not taking the plane (not just the Governor uses the planes). He also says it only costs $65 to drive between Chicago and Springfield. It costs double that based on the current mileage reimbursement rate. All of the audit issues he brings up with equipment aren’t savings. I have no idea how he comes to that conclusion. As for the payments on Medicaid to deceased individuals that money has been recovered. No savings there either. I also have no idea in general how he comes up with $140 million in savings. Is he counting all of the things he has listed? Ummm, Mr. Rauner, that spending has already taken place. No savings there.

This budget “blueprint” is indeed laughable. Is this what we were all waiting for. If so this gives me zero confidence in him. He clearly has no clue about the budget.

I’d love to be a fly in the House and Senate Republican Leadership meetings when they talk about all the fun things Raunervich has in store for them should they get elected. I know this proposal would never get out of a chamber, but this demonstrates the candidate’s Blago-like tendency to target the Solons with his rhetoric.

His so-called budget is a sham, just like his hollow shell of a campaign. He thinks with all his money he can ice cubes to Eskimos and pure B.S. to Illinois’ voters but I think he’s so transparently phony that by November the electorate will see through him as easily as if he were made out of glass. What a con man he is. He’s Illinois’ own Music Man, a genuinely more dangerous charlatan than Rod Blagojevich.

Also Mr. Rauner, do you really want to start messing with the budgets of the Supreme Court and other Constitutional officers? I seem to recall a guy named Blago trying to do that and it didn’t turn out so well for him. It’s generally a no-no for the Governor to stick his nose into the budgets of other Constitutional officers, let alone the Supreme Court.

Saying “he’s up by 10, he doesn’t need a plan” is conflating campaigning with governing. I’d go along with you a bit if I thought Rauner actually -had- a plan in the wings to unveil when he gets to Springfield. But some of us are concerned when and if he gets there, his first action to restore confidence in IL govt will be either to break half his fiscal promises on the campaign trail or to send IL deep into a fiscal crater.

The “running the state like a business” candidate has officially become a Politican, speaking in platitudes, while raising more questions while giving no answers.

The secret is not that there is no plan, the secret is that running like you have a plan falls apart when you rollout a “non-plan”… Plan.

We don’t even need the. “Way-back” Machine to see how stale these talking points are, and we don’t need a degree in economics to know this isn’t a sound fiscal “plan, outline, starting point, ending point,” to know there was no point to this embarrassing circus.

The secret is out too that the Trib’s “Simple-Mided” choice clearly doesn’t know the economics of budgetary policy of governing. How you spend, and where you spend, is as important as the red pen of slashing. What economic statement did today give us as to the policy of governing by a “Governor Rauner”

He didn’t.

You get only one chance to “fundamentally show” your monetary strategies and your economic priorities before everyone watching calls it all “baloney”. There is nothing presented that would be considered a “fundamental change” in governing, and frankly, nothing stated that has anything to do with governing, and understanding the role of the Executive.

Is the only highlight that his meekly qualified, 1st term City Councilwoman runningmate didn’t fall down and due anyone?

Will the Press use this manifesto, starting point, ending point mess to “hammer and shake” the “fundamental” answers needed to show whether Bruce Rauner is able to be the CEO of a Illinois? I hope not. Bruce Rauner is NOT running for CEO, but to be Governor of the 5th largest state in America, and he failed his first explanation of how he is going to be Governor.

Our local banks and my Board of Directors would laugh me out of the room if I presented a budget proposal like this. His budget will effect real people in real jobs. This is a year of development or last weekend?

–I think he’s so transparently phony that by November the electorate will see through him as easily as if he were made out of glass. What a con man he is. He’s Illinois’ own Music Man, a genuinely more dangerous charlatan than Rod Blagojevich.–

Blago could be the template for success. He was elected twice.

Look at his second election: raise loads of money, go negative early and often, smile and speak in platitudes.

I love the line, “Illinois is run by lobbyists…” when the current, albeit resigning, GOP state party chair was a lobbyist. No doubt Jack will be offered a position in the administration should Rauner win. If this budget blueprint is any indication though, that will never happen.

I am getting chills…..you can almost remove Rauner’s name and put Blagos name on the plan I swear he released the same report. CMS has been “reformed” so many times its not even funny and all the savings is gone! Rauner’s ideas (like Blago’s) will not make a difference and only complicate matters for the public.

The only way to save is to slash entitlement programs, and you know that is not going to happen.

I must say I expected something more professional looking from such a high level excutive. Something that looks more like what COGFA puts out. This looks like something a middle school kid tossed together at the last minute the night before it was due.

Steve, I’m thinking that Wordslinger’s point was that in Illinois one doesn’t register as a Democrat or a Republican. The only time you need to identify “your” party is when you choose a primary ballot.

The problem is that tons of Democrats, particularly downstate and in the suburbs, have had it with Quinn.

If Rauner ever gives them a reason to vote for him, Quinn is in trouble. This “plan” does not seem to accomplish that in my eyes. But then, I don’t have 20 million to put behind it on media and make it look like a real “plan”.

All of us insiders know this is phony, but how will it look with a few weeks with 1200 points behind it on televisions across the state?

The end result for me is that it is just another cynical ploy by the Rauner campaign to alienate this die-hard Republican voter.

While the GOP doesn’t have much of a track record for polling, I don’t think GOTV is all Quinn needs.

Quinn is nobody’s first choice. As such, he’s got to get the message out that Rauner hates women, children, dogs, and poor people. And he needs to convince voters that Rauner is just as likely to give contracts to well connected friends as Quinn is. Quinn has to show that Rauner is also going to waste their money too.

If Quinn can get voters to believe that, he’s got a chance.

If Quinn keeps bumbling around, no GOTV operation is going to make the slightest difference.

Word, I agree with you except I think the fact that Blago so recently pulled that off but then got a lengthy vacation in the big house will make it harder for Rauner to pull off the same trick. I essentially think this old saying is true even of Illinois’ electorate: “once bitten, twice shy.”

OK Pat.
You got your ammunition.
Go out there and show voters what kind of a governor you are.

Rauner has set the bar and it is an easy one to clear. Make sure you have everyone’s attention when you clear it. Better, beat Rauner’s budget projections.

What Quinn has to do now is show everyone that he can beat Rauner when it comes to Shaking up Springfield and resolving the budget fiasco we currently face.

Voters would approve of the Governor making this faux Rauner budget a major reason they need to stick with him. Governor, you have the opportunity to get rid of that lead he has in the polls and keep him there.

“I’ve identified $1Billion savings in waste and fraud in state government.”

“But most of them are completely wrong, others have already been taken, others are Federal not State-driven, others are capital funds not cash as implied, and even then they don’t add up to anywhere near a $Billion. This is a fraud, a prank.”

Which message plays best at the polls?

In this economy and public mind-set, the first one.

Question: Does Rauner even want to know the truth about the state budget? Even in secret, so he has a chance in advance of doing the job? Cannot he get some real input from former state budget experts?

By some weird logic, this may actually be brilliant. The minions who need to hear “cut waste, pork and fraud” hear enough words to stay on their happy path, and the people who are fearful of real cuts can look at this and reassure themselves that nothing drastic is going to REALLY happen.

Everyone who said Quinn’s campaign shouldn’t have been harping on his failure to release a budget should apologize. They brilliantly forced this error. I can’t believe Rauner’s team was duped so easily. They come off like amateurs… Which they are.

Totally underwhelming in my opinion. Far too little in savings and far too little in detail in the CMS section. If Rauner achieve the goal of a tax cut and increased spending on schools he needs to cut billions, not millions, more out of the rest of the budget.

Probably true, but the folks who will buy this piece of garbage have already bought into the Raunervich candidacy. The target for the “plan” are those who want to see specifics before making a decision. This cohort may be a little more astute.

The Rauner clown car has officially arrived. We’ll see if PQ’s press team can say more than it is a prank and specifically sight where Rauner made mistakes. There is a lot of ammo here that lends itself to be more than being a “prank”.

BR: . We need live chickens to take the focus off these Dopey talking points, and nobody seems to know what to get Kim and Kanye for their wedding present.
[to Slip and Sue]

BR: Is that about right?
[Slip and Sue nods]

BR: We’re dealing with a lot of ‘baloney’.

Schrimpf: Okay, well, uh… candlesticks always make a nice gift, and uh, maybe you could find out where Kim’s registered and maybe a place-setting or maybe a silverware pattern. Okay, let’s fool one or two! Go get ‘em.

Really, Brooke? “Billionaires THAT want to be governor”? Are you seriously telling us that you haven’t learned the difference between “who” and “that”? Come on. Your headline looks like it was written by a 10 year old drop-out.

I wonder what running a state like a business would actually look like?

For starters, you wouldn’t be eliminating much waste. I’ve seen very few businesses that didn’t engage in a ton of waste and inefficiencies. If anything, there are more opportunities for waste and inefficiencies in a business than in a government because there isn’t the same kind of oversight that government is subject to. I can’t just FOIA documents from, say, GTCR.

So, how would this state as a business work? For starters, I think that tax rates would go sky high. Fees too. After all, businesses exist to make as much money as possible. So, the state would have to start turning a profit. Bigger is better. You’d have to give top management an incentive package as well, so that the Gov and his peeps could get paid for increasing net income. What happens when people leave the state in droves over the high taxes and fees? Dunno. Top management will take it’s golden parachutes and jump. Who cares about long-term viability? Quarterly results are all that matter.

All those expensive “services” would have to be pared back, or fees would have to be charged. Need to report a crime to the cops? That’ll be $100. Educate your kids? $8,000/semester. House on fire? $5,000 and up.

Pretty quickly, the state should start making massive profits. Not sure where that money should go, maybe a bonus for the Governor.

I know we all like to beat up on CMS for overcharging, feather bedding, etc. (heck, I used to when I worked for the State) but they do a number of necessary functions in government and some of their actions actually do result in overall savings compared to having each agency do it on their own.

Looking at Rauner’s claims of $517M in emergency procurements and $163M in sole source, I have to say the services were apparently needed, so they would have been bought anyway … maybe cheaper, maybe not. I seriously doubt that $680M could be reduced by more than $100M; I can’t begin to tell for sure with the minimal detail provided.

The hubris of this guy: I’ve always been successful so my magic success will make things work now! But according to him he hasn’t managed a thing in his life (at least when a controversy pops up) and he’s not analyst, so he doesn’t think critically and analytically about things. He’s just a salesman and he’s selling junk.

How did Rauner put this “plan” together? He probably tried to play with the Crain’s budget calculator and found out it doesn’t actually work anymore, thus he had to make up some fantasy numbers.

To put a point on RNUG’s point about CMS, CMS doesn’t spend a ton of money itself. Most of its spending is either on behalf of other agencies, from all funds, through it’s purchasing activities or by activity funds that bill agencies for rent, computer services, etc. So, if Team Rauner finds waste in the State Garage, hypothetically, a dollar of savings may only get back 30-40 cents of GRF, as other funds make up the balance of Garage Fund revenue. Saving tens, let alone hundreds of millions by eliminating emergency/sole source procurements is even more specious because 1) even Team Rauner can’t eliminate things like bad weather by fiat 2) some things really only have one source of supply-asking for bids may raise the price and 3) a large percentage of those procurements occur in agencies beyond the Governor’s control, e.g. Universities. I don’t think he wants the Pension Funds to put their Private Equity and Hedge Fund deals out for bid, though.

This is probably the one time I would excuse “Slip and Sue” if she would have been smart enough NOT to be there.

Amateur hour.

Unless Bruce is on a script, or in a commercial, or doesn’t have to answer any questions, Bruce is just a rich guy, bored, with no new ideas, but willing to spend any amount of money to be relevant to the discussion… of fame.

I am glad AWillyWord Con$ulting doesn’t have to “own” this idea, but in reality, none of us would have suggested it.

Rauner is lucky for this… It’s June… We are the only ones paying close attention and there is time to correct. I also want to say to all the negative comments about the chickens. I have an inside scoop. Those chickens are going to be relocated by Rauner at his expense to Montana. When his next blueprint is released in October, it will be surrounded in a field of chickens. They will be served at the inauguration dinner. The cost savings to this state will be millions. So I want to be the first to thank Mr. Rauner. Very well played, all these dopes here don’t get the plan….